Nancy Edmonds Hanson
With trash on Moorhead’s mind these days, Shannon Thompson and Crystal Rayamajhi suggest the time is right to think beyond the annual Cleanup Days to the rest of the year.
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. “We’re getting pretty good at thinking ‘recycle,’” says Shannon, a solid waste expert with the Clay County Resource Recovery Center. “But that’s not even the important thing we can do the reduce what we throw away that piles up in the environment.”
More productive than piling junk on the boulevard once a year, she says, is a simple year-round approach: “First, don’t bring so much junk home in the first place. Why did you buy that? Why are you hanging on to it? And when you’re finally ready to get clear it out – and I guarantee you will be someday – consider where it will go.”
Shannon and Crystal, the city’s sustainability coordinator, emphasize the first part of the familiar three-word mantra. With the rise of so-called “fast fashion” and its home-goods equivalent, unnecessary waste is piling up, often destined to be scooped up by garbage trucks. They suggest simply buying less and, when you do, investing in quality purchases with lasting power rather than something that’ll be used once or twice, and then forgotten to clutter the house until the next bout of spring cleaning.
Recycling, says Shannon, is not the whole answer – at least, not the whole one. “When the garbage truck empties your blue bin, that’s not really recycling. The trucks are just collecting the recyclable material as the first of step of many,” she explains.. The contents of those trucks has to be hauled to Minnkota Recycling, where it’s separated. It will await a distant buyer who can use one specific component – paper, cardboard, cans, containers or cartons – that can be remanufactured. Not everything will find a willing buyer. Some percentage of whatever remains is destined, in fact, for the landfill.
More effective, Crystal says, is to find new uses here at home for what you want to dispose of. Parents and grandparents may want to give what they think has value to their kids. That may have worked in the past – we call them “heirlooms” – but it’s likely to run into a roadblock when passing it on to their offspring.
“We’re a generation for whom nothing is precious,” Shannon observes. “Older parents are finding their adult children may want little or none of what they’ve held dear.” She tells of 12 place settings of fine china complete with serving pieces, that she has spotted for sale on Facebook Marketplace for $40 or so, the original price of a platter. Well-crafted furniture from grandparents’ day, built to last a lifetime, may be scorned for flimsy particle-board pieces in discount stores.
Fortunately for those facing crammed basements and garages, Crystal says, opportunities to pass on no-longer-wanted clothes, furniture, décor and the rest have never been more numerous. Dragging throwaways to the boulevard for scavengers to pick through on Cleanup Days is perhaps the least attractive option to achieve the reuses they recommend.
The women cite two alternatives, each with its own pluses: Marketing via social media services like Marketplace, Fargo Moorhead Buy and Sell, and other Facebook and Instagram groups. Another popular and effective way to send unneeded things off to a new life is giveaway pages like Buy Nothing Moorhead.
There are plenty of brick-and-mortar spots in Fargo-Moorhead that can turn your donated goods into good works. Crystal cites four right here in Moorhead, including the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch Thrift Store; Jazzy and Mumbo’s, which uses the proceeds to support health care and supplies for pets; Second Time Around, benefiting Heartland Industries and its clients with disabilities; and ReStore, the shop operated by Habitat for Humanity.
The thrift stores don’t accept everything, Crystal notes. High on the unwanted list are mattresses, paint and chemicals, battered furniture and old TVs with bulky picture tubes, along with anything that’s damaged or doesn’t work. A typical list of items that can be accepted, along with those that rate a hard “no,” is on Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch’s website, www.dakotaranch.org. ReStore’s wants are a little different, with its emphasis on home improvement materials. More information is on its website, www.lakeagassizhabitat.org/restore/.
Rummage sales are a reliable route to rehoming things that still have value, though not to their current owners. The city of Moorhead is taking its third turn at sponsoring the city’s biggest rummage sale Saturday, May 20. Admission is just a buck; to set up your own sales table, register as a vendor for $35. The event takes place from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Cullen Hockey Center.
And the same place where Moorhead and Clay County residents can haul whatever they want to never see again has a spot of its own where intact giveaways can find new homes. The Reuse Store at the Resource Recover Center, located at the corner of 34th Street and 15th Avenue North, displays a collection of perfectly usable items the staff has spotted being dropped off by residents. While they have to pay a modest fee to drop off their own rejects, they can sift through a selection of others’ rescued items absolutely free. A revolving inventory of unpredictable finds lines the shelves. Last Monday, that ranged from full-size diving flippers and several pairs of roller blade to an aquarium, a one-stringed guitar, two armsful of Santa Bears, a pair of nightstands, a patio table, a volleyball net, several cans of spray paint, picture frames, a couple dining room chairs, and plenty more. Hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays.
